Area’s best fall from top 8

GREENE COUNTY — For the first time this high school football season, there are no teams from the Greene County area ranked among the top eight teams in their respective football regions.

Why is that important? Only the top eight teams in each region will qualify for the Ohio high school football playoffs. If teams don’t garner enough computer points — based on how well they do during the season and how well the teams they’ve defeated fare as well — they won’t play past Week 10 of the regular season.

Despite remaining undefeated at 8-0 and walloping Ohio Heritage Conference rival Cedarville along the way, Greeneview fell out of the Division V, Region 20 top 8 listings, down to No. 9.

With consecutive losses to Springboro, Wayne and Springfield in recent weeks, Beavercreek now finds itself at No. 11 in its region of Division I. Like Greeneview, they need to win their final two games and then hope for some teams ahead of them to lose in these final two weeks of the regular season.

In both scenarios, the possibility of the two schools getting into the playoffs is still viable.

Bellbrook surpassed Beavercreek in our local poll but, despite last week’s win over Northridge, the Golden Eagles may need a lot of help to get themselves into the post season. They are at No. 13 in Division III’s Region 12. It’s a long shot, but if Bellbrook wins out and a handful of teams in front of them can lose twice, they could be in.

With its second straight win of the season, Xenia has climbed into fourth spot in our local Greene County football poll.

AREA RANKINGS

(Record, overal points difference)

1. Greeneview (8-0) +324

2. Bellbrook (5-3) +127

3. Beavercreek (5-3) +37

4. Xenia (2-6) -96

5. Fairborn (2-6) -135

6. Carroll (1-7) -209

7. Cedarville (0-8) -213

LAST WEEK’S SCORES

Friday, Oct. 13

Springfield 64, Beavercreek 28

Bellbrook 49, Northridge 14

Roger Bacon 41, Carroll 28

Greeneview 63, Cedarville 12

Springboro 41, Fairborn 0

Xenia 42, West Carrollton 12

TOP PERFORMERS

Sincere Wells, Running Back, Xenia — In the home win over West Carrollton, Wells rushed for 201 yards on 14 carries, scoring two touchdowns. It’s the 5-9, 190-pound junior’s second rushing night where he surpassed the 200-yard barrier. He ran for 285 yards earlier in a home loss to state-ranked Sidney. He now has 1,o75 yards this season and 13 touchdowns.

Griffin Mangan, Greenview, Running Back — The 5-9, 170-pound senior gained 132 yards and scored three touchdowns, and he only carried the ball eight times, in Friday’s win over Cedarville.

Meechi Harris, Wide Receiver, Xenia — The future Kentucky Wildcat may have only caught three passes against West Carrollton, but that was in limited action. Harris averaged 30.3 yards a catch and scored a touchdown for the Buccaneers. He’s averaging 17.9 yards per catch so far this season. On special teams, Harris returned two punts for 85 yards.

Drew Nanda, Running Back, Beavercreek — The Beavers’ 5-foot-10, 150-pound senior turned in his second best rushing performance of the season with his second most carries of the season, in Friday’s Oct. 13 loss at Springfield. Nanda gained 101 yards on 11 carries for a 9.2 yards-per-carry average. He now has gained 483 yards this season with three touchdowns.

Cedarville Indians special teams — Down by 35 points and about to kickoff to start the second half, the Cedarville Indians kicking team had nothing to lose. So they tried an onside kick …. and recovered it. The Indians converted the short field into a touchdown to finally get Cedarville on the scoreboard against Greeneview. With a never-say-die attitude, they followed that feat with still ANOTHER onside kick, and recovered it too! And again the team scored.